Reinforced hockey stick



Nov. 2l, 1967 A, 1, TRAVERSE 3,353,826

REINFORCED HOCKEY STICK Filed April 6, 1965 INVENTOR. ALFRED J. TR AVER'SE BY M ATTOR N EYS United States Patent O 3,353,826 REINFORCED HOCKEY STICK Alfred J. Traverse, 235 Central St.,

Laconia, N.H. 03246 Filed Apr. 6, 1965, Ser. No. 446,057 1 Claim. (Cl. i73-67) ABSTRACT F THE DISCLOSURE A hockey stick is reinforced by a knitted sock composed of ber glass yarn and a very ine filament knitted together, the sock being covered with a coating of durable synthetic resin.

This invention relates to a hockey stick which is reinforced in such a way as to have greatly added strength with negligible added weight. Since rapid movements of a hockey stick are required in use, the stick must be as light in weight as practicable but must also be mechanically strong to withstand the battering to which it is apt to be subjected in play. For lightness in weight, hockey sticks are customarily made of kinds of wood which are light but strong, such as ash or elm. The blade of the standard hockey stick is about eleven inches long, the shank having a length between four and tive feet. The stick made for goalies has a much wider blade.

Since the blade is the part 0f the stick that takes the most punishment, it is frequently wrapped 0r served with strong tape to reinforce it, further protection being had by coating the wrapped blade with a lm of suitable plastic material resistant to abrasion. The application of such tape to the blade of a stick is difficult, and adds materially to the cost of manufacture.

According to the present invention, a tubular sock is knitted of a strong yarn of nylon or fiber glass together l with very ne nylon filaments. The sock is made of such a size that it tits smoothly on the blade and on a few inches of the shank, when tightly stretched. Liquid plastic is then applied to the portion of the stick covered by the sock so `as to embed the sock and form a tough coating thereon. As the sock itself is very thin, the coating on the sock-covered surface of the stick is also thin so that the increase of weight is negligible, but the increase in mechanical strength is substantial.

For a more complete understanding of the invention, reference may be had to the following description thereof, and to the drawing, of which- FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of the blade and lower portion of the shank of a typical wooden hockey stick;

FIGURE 2 is a similar view of the same, on a larger scale, after =a reinforcing sock has been stretched over the blade and adjoining portion of the shank;

FIGURE 3 is a similar View of the same after the reinforcing has been completed;

FIGURES 4 and 5 are enlarged sectional views on the lines 4-4 and 5 5, respectively, of FIGURE 3; and

FIGURE 6 is a perspective view of a sock before it is applied to a stick.

The sock 10 shown in FIGURE 6 is made on a circular knitting machine by first knitting half an inch or so of tubular fabric using a textured nylon yarn which may for example be of 140 denier weight. After this end portion 12 has been knitted, the yarn fed to the needles is abruptly changed to a combination of a fiber glass yarn of 450 denier weight and a very ne nylon yarn of 50 denier "ice weight. The latter yarns are smooth, the liber glass yarn being less bulky than the textured yarn used in the end portion 12 though of greater weight. The entire sock is preferably plain-knitted. The relatively small diameter of the fiber glass yarn used in the body 14 of the sock gives this portion a somewhat sheer or diaphanous quality. This body portion is knitted to an unstressed length of about ten inches, whereupon the yarn feed is changed back to textured nylon and a final end portion 16 about half an inch long is knitted. One end of the tubular fabric is then closed as at 18 by overlock stitching with a very fine `l0-denier nylon filament, a three-thread sewing machine being used.

Instead of shifting to fiber glass yarn for the body portion of the sock, the textured nylon yarn can be continued in the knitting of the remainder of the sock so that the entire sock will be made of textured nylon yarn.

When the sock is applied to a hockey stick 20, its open end is pulled over the blade 22 and a few inches up the shank 24 of the stick, the end portion 12 facilitating this operation if the body portion is of ber glass yarn. The loosely-knitted body portion 14 of the sock can be readily stretched to a length of eighteen inches or so, such stretching resulting in la circumferential contraction so that the sock fits snugly on the blade 22 and on the portion of the shank 24 which it covers without any folds or wrinkles. While the sock is thus stretched smoothly on the blade and -adjoining portion of the shank, a piece of Scotch tape 26 or the like is passed around it near its upper end, and the end portion above the tape is trimmed off. For ornamental purposes, one or more pieces of black or colored tape 28 may be applied around the shank of the stick, three such pieces being shown in FIGURE 3 by way of example. The lowermost of the tapes 28 is applied to cover and conceal the Scotch tape 26 and the upper end of the sock.

After the upper end of the sock has been secured, the sock-covered portion of the stick is coated by any convenient method, such as dipping or spraying, with a liquid synthetic resin which solidiiies into a tough skin. The resin coating, with the sock embedded therein, materially increases the mechanical strength and durability of the stick. For this purpose any one of a number of resins, e.g. polyester resins, can be employed such as polypropylene or polyethylene.

I claim:

A hockey stick comprising a blade and shank, atubular knitted sock tightly stretched over said blade and an adjoining part of said shank, and a coating of durable synthetic resin material in which said sock is embedded covering said blade and part of the shank, said sock being a tubular knitted fabric of fiber glass yarn and a very line nylon filament knitted together.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,912,245 11/ 1959 Gardner et lal 273-67 3,115,912 12/ 1963 Harris. 3,236,070 2/ 1966 Clayton.

FOREIGN PATENTS 591,454 1/ 1960 Canada.

90,729 1/ 1958 Norway.

ANTON O. OECHSLE, Primary Examiner.

R. I. APLEY, Am'stant Examiner. 

